19-07-2026, 01:36 AM
19-07-2026, 03:45 AM
(19-07-2026, 01:36 AM)VoyBear Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Sorry if this was asked before, but did someone ever ask the jesuits what they did to the manuscript, before Voynich acquired it ?
Wilfrid lied about the provenance of the manuscript for many years, supposedly because public knowledge of the sale would mean trouble for the Jesuits. So I suppose that asking that question to them would have been rather difficult. Anyway, by the time people got interested enough in the details like binding, all the Jesuits involved in the sale would probably be gone.
And AFAIK there is no mention of the book anywhere between Marci's letter and Wilfrid's announcements. Rene may correct me, but AFAIK there is no stamp on the VMS or an entry in any catalog that confirms that the VMS was in their possession. It is not even identified in the list of books sold to Wilfrid: there is an entry that could be it, but that identification is only by exclusion, if one assumes that it must be on that list.
So I bet that the Jesuits have no records now of whatever they did to it.
All the best. --stolfi